Shatter defends air travel data share with US

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has strongly defended the sharing of personal information of air travellers to the US and said the system had resulted in the prevention and investigation of terrorism and organised crime.

He hit out at paranoia regarding the human rights record of the US and said he wanted to maximise co-operation between Ireland, the EU and the US in this area. Mr Shatter was addressing the Oireachtas Justice Committee on an EU-US agreement on the transfer of passenger name records to the US Department of Homeland Security.

Passenger name records data is information about passengers’ travel plans collected by air carriers as part of their reservations systems. The agreement requires airlines to provide some of this information to US authorities. The agreement replaces the EU-US passenger name records agreement, in operation since 2007. Mr Shatter said it had been renegotiated to address concerns that had been raised about proportionality, data protection and data security aspects.